The Forgotten Beginning
by Fallen Angel8
Summary: The Beginning told from the POV of an Alien (OC)


The Forgotten Beginning  
By: Lost Angel  
  
Author's Note: If my information is a little off, please forgive me, I have not read   
books 31-53 (Little gap there, but I'm working on it.) Anyway, when I was reading  
the beginning this story just popped into my head. Maybe I'll write more about Clo,  
maybe not. This story will confuse you if you haven't read Book #54. (That book   
made me cry so much.) Well, tell me what you think.   
~Lost Angel  
Disclaimers: The Animorphs belong to K.A Applegate. Clo is my own creation,   
though.  
= = = = = = = = = = =  
My name is Cloansin, everybody calls me Clo.  
I'm the last Animorph, History would never know about me, I was the unknown   
Animorph, and know what? I kind of liked it that way. I was one of a kind, like   
Tobias, only different. I was a shifter… I didn't morph, I shape shifted and I was   
the last of my kind. I came to earth many years ago and I helped the Animorphs  
for a long time before joining their team. They'd never seen me as my species. I   
was always a human or animal, I didn't have a two hour time limit. Right now I was   
an Ocelot, a fast moving, but small predator. Oh yeah, did I mention I was on a   
Yeerk Blade Ship.  
  
My little internal alarms went off when I heard Jake tell Rachel to go with Tom. One  
Animorph against fifteen or so morph capable Yeerks were not good odds. Not   
even for Rachel, who was the artillery of the Animorphs. But of course, me being   
the more stupid of the two alien Animorphs, I went with her. I had been a flea on   
tom's shoe for a long time, not even Rachel knew I was there. I listened as   
Rachel demorphed and Re-morphed into a Grizzly bear. "Animorph!" I heard a   
controller screech. I took a hint and started to re-shift. Clo? What are you doing   
here? Get out! Rachel yelled at me in thought speak.No way. I told her in my   
Ocelot body. Rachel charged at a polar bear. I took on a lioness. She was easily   
twice my size and over powered me, but I was faster and I could Shift easily.   
  
Let me explain Shifting a little bit. I don't go through any weird changes, and I   
don't have to pass through my original form. My body just glows and re shaped   
itself. I don't grow anything new, I just… change.  
  
I crouched down on my powerful legs and bared my powerful teeth and screeched   
at the lioness. She jumped at me, just as I had wanted her to. I soared upwards   
from my powerful legs and landed my 25 pound body on her back. I then sank my  
razor sharp teeth into her neck. She twisted, trying to get me, but I jumped, teeth   
still sticking in her neck and I literally cut it open. I looked hopelessly at the animals   
on what I knew was Rachel. I screamed with an Ocelot's voice when a Cobra went   
strait for Rachel. I heard Tobias giving Rachel directions and I knew then that it   
was almost over. "I love you." I heard her tell Tobias and then it was over for her,   
the Polar Bear crushed her skull.   
  
I heard Tobias's cry of anguish and I went mad. I began to shift a bush baby, but I   
stopped myself in mid shift and gave myself the venom and fangs of a King Cobra.  
My little body was made to Soar and I leapt towards the Buffalo and sunk my fangs   
into him before pushing the venom out into his bloodstream. I did the same to the   
last two animals, a polar bear and a lioness. I began shifting again, this time into   
an alligator. I maneuvered my slow, but powerful body towards the Buffalo, I   
snapped and killed once and again and again.   
  
I became a Koala, the body I loved the most and felt the most comfortable in. I   
knew there were more Yeerks on this ship, but I didn't care. I smelled blood, the   
blood of those I had killed, and Rachel's. I walked over to her lifeless body and   
gave myself the human trait of tears. They ran down my gray and white fur. I   
climbed up onto her chest and licked away the blood that was splattered on her   
face. Good bye, my dear, dear friend Rachel. Sleep peacefully. And then I did   
something that my people did when a loved one died before it was their time. I   
became my true form. A Shifter. I became almost weightless as my face became   
similar to a humans and a chimpanzee's. My arms were long and fragile as were   
my legs. I stood on four stilt like legs, the thickest pats of each no wider than a   
human wrist. I grew grayish fur and large, black eyes. I was a small Shifter, I was   
only seven and a half feet tall. I raised a paw and I bit it until it bled. I dripped the   
blood into Rachel's mouth and then into my own. ::Tell Tobias I will always be with   
him until the end when we can be together again. :: Said Rachel's spirit. This was   
my race's version of last rights. It relayed their last wish, hope or thought. I lifted   
my head and slowly, I changed locations. I landed on the Yeerk pool ship, still in   
my own form. I concentrated on the Koala, and I allowed myself to appear as   
though I morphed. I became a Koala again and I teetered into a corner. I just   
didn't care anymore. I hadn't fought hard enough, and now Rachel was dead.   
I felt like I had killed Rachel.  
  
I sat in that corner for a very long time and when I looked up again Tobias was   
crying, he may have morphed into hawk and then back into human, but I   
understood. He was mourning and it was hard to mourn as anything that couldn't   
cry. I walked over to him and leaned into his led. She asked me to tell you that   
she will always be with you until the end when you can be together again. and   
we cried together, human and Bear.   
  
I left Tobias to mourn alone. I climbed up into a cubard and I shut the door. It was   
dark, and my nocturnal vision was blurred with the one human trait I had   
Assimilated, made my own…tears. I sat there and I cried. I cried for Rachel and   
Tobias, I cried for the controllers I had killed, I cried for my people, who had killed   
themselves rather than become Yeerk slaves. I climbed out, or was rather thrown   
out when the engines were jettisoned. I ran down the corridors until I ran into   
Cassie's legs. She reached down and picked me up, placing me on a shoulder.  
"Tobias, this is a big moment. Don't you think Rachel would want us to enjoy it as   
much as we can?" Cassie asked quietly. I don't know, he snapped If she were   
still alive I'd ask her. I looked at Tobias, I tried never to show any emotions to   
the Animorphs. But now, today, I couldn't help it. I shifted to the small, agile   
bushbaby. I'm sorry Tobias. I'm sorry I didn't save her.I leapt into the air, letting   
the skin flaps between my front legs and back legs carry me on the air.   
  
We landed on earth in Washington some time later. I left the ship as soon as I   
could. I ran to a series of stairs and hid in the shadows. I shifted to a dormouse   
and scampered up to sit on the steps. I watched Jake and Ax make long   
speeches followed by shorter ones by Cassie and Marco. Rachel would have   
loved this, it's what she had always fought for - a free world. I think we all looked   
out on the crowd and, for the first time, weren't afraid a controller was watching us.   
  
I was watching as a Dormouse when the Andalites carried Rachel off of their ship,   
shrouded in a burial cloth. Cassie and Rachel's mom identified her and, after they   
left, I darted out of the shadows and up onto the platform that held Rachel. I lay   
down on her chest and hoped that I would die right then and there. But I never did.   
Clo, why did you try to disappear. Asked Ax, stepping out of the shadows. I  
tried to act like a normal mouse. I ran back down the leg and across the yard.   
Ax's delicate hands lifted me off the ground and I bit him, like a normal mouse. I   
tried to loose myself in the mouse's mind and body, but I couldn't. I eventually   
found my way to Rachel's memorial service. It was a big ordeal. The Animorphs,   
Rachel's family and even the President made speeches. I turned myself into a   
peregrine falcon and perched on a chair in the back, needless to say the lady in   
the chair freaked out a little bit. I'm so sorry Rachel. I'm sorry everyone. I said   
and took off, I soared towards the sun, I flew. Maybe I hoped I could fly away from  
it all. Fly into the past and make things right. If I had just become myself, I could   
have killed them all and saved Rachel. I could have saved Rachel.  
  
THREE YEARS LATER  
I followed the Hummer and truck down the old road. I watched them stop in the   
desert night. They looked up at the ship, completely awed. I heard them name it   
The Rachel. That was all I needed. I landed and became my true self. A seven  
foot tall, delicate shifter. Jake started walking up the dock path. Jake. I said.   
My voice filled with the aura and kindness of my species. Please, let me come.   
I owe it to Rachel. He nodded and finished his ascend. I watched each human  
walk up before I followed in a human shift. "For you Rachel."  
= = = = = = = = = = = = =  
So, you see, this is why I like being the forgotten Animorph. No one knows I could  
have saved Rachel that terrible day, no one except me. To this day, I live with my  
guilt and I have at least come to terms with it. I will never forget Rachel, nor will my   
friends, and I hope neither will you.  
  
Author's Ending Note: Rachel was my favorite character and I'm more than just a   
little ticked off that K.A. Applegate killed her.   



End file.
